North Korea

Some people may remember the fun parlor game from almost 20 years ago, in which the close parallels were observed between the Unabomber’s famous manifesto, “Industrial Civilization and Its Discontents” and Al Gore’s Earth in the Balance. (I extended this problematic aspect of Gore’s philosophy in this paper that noted how closely Gore unknowingly (??) tracked Heidegger.) Now our friends at Mother Jones (heh) have equaled that feat, with a quiz »

By far the most remarkable article of the week was Richard Haass in the Wall Street Journal on Christmas eve, saying it is time for American foreign policy to seek . . . regime change in North Korea! They don’t make ‘em much more Capital-E “Establishment” than Haass, who is president of the uber-establishment Council on Foreign Relations. The CFR is hardly a nest of adventurous Bushoisie neocons. Still, Haass »

I suppose it shouldn’t surprise us that Saturday Night Live had a better response to North Korea than President Obama did, starring Mike Myers as “Dr. Evil.” I especially like the predictable “There’s already a GOP,” because—what took so long? »

Iowahawk took to Twitter yesterday to comment on President Obama’s after-the-fact advice to Sony in the matter of The Interview. As is his wont, Obama affected the position of an innocent bystander. Even without the relevant history I found Obama’s pose somewhere beyond creepy. He thinks we’re really, really stupid, and he’s got the evidence to back it up. Iowahawk took a quote from Obama speaking about Sony at his »

On November 24, the news broke that Sony Pictures’ computer system had been hacked. Today, 25 days later, President Obama finally addressed the issue in one of his rare press conferences. In the meantime, Sony had already announced that it is killing the movie that was the apparent cause of the intrusion, “The Interview;” showings of another film, “Team America,” had been canceled, and production of a third film that »

Hollywood is already caving in to liberal guilt over its capitulation to North Korean intimidation, apparently agreeing with Hillary Clinton that we need to empathize with our enemies. In an article out this afternoon in the LA Weekly that ostensibly laments giving in to threats, it isn’t long before the article goes full tilt boogie for liberal guilt: The movie about a talk TV crew’s CIA-initiated plot to assassinate a »

No sooner than I suggest that Hollywood order up a whole slate of movies mocking North Korea than the news comes that Sony is pulling theatrical release of “The Interview,” about which the hackers have threatened terrorist violence. Call me a cynic, but I wonder if this isn’t a brilliant marketing play on behalf of a movie that was heading for total bomb status at the box office. Sony will »

So far most news reports about the massive Sony hack are expressing “uncertainty” about whether North Korea is behind the cyberattack. Today Variety reports that the hackers are threatening 9/11-style terrorist attacks on theaters that screen “The Interview,” the Seth Rogan/James Franco vehicle making fun of the latest Little Kim to tyrannize the unfortunate northern half of Korea. Frankly this threat makes me skeptical that the Norks are behind this. »

North Korea has released two American prisoners — Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller. I agree with Claudia Rosett that we should be glad for the two prisoner/hostages, but unhappy about the way their release was brought about. President Obama secured the release of Bae and Miller by sending James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, to North Korea. Clapper carried a message from President Obama to North Korean tyrant Kim Jong »

Is there some kind of power struggle or coup going on in North Korea? The Daily Mail is reporting today that Pyongyang is on “lockdown,” that Little Kim (as I call him) hasn’t been seen in public for almost a month, and that perhaps his sister (I’ll call her “Little Kim” too, because chauvinism) is actually running the country, or may have been running it for some time. “Gateway Pundit” »

Reading Obama’s speeches is a little like reading New York Times editorials. They don’t withstand close scrutiny, but that’s the least of it. They should be accompanied by a warning that they may be hazardous to your health. They kill brain cells. George Will suffers through Obama’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin so that we don’t have to. Will takes up the arms control thread in Obama’s speech. »

Back in the 1980s, when The New Republic described Jesse Jackson as “the great ambulance chaser of American politics,” it was Jackson who would insert himself in every foreign crisis he could. He sprung a downed airman from Syrian captivity in 1984, and then got on the phone with various Lebanese terrorists trying to mediate the 1985 TWA flight 847 hijacking and hostage crisis. (He was unsuccessful that time.) At »

I want to second Steve’s thoughts about Kim Jong Un and North Korea. The recent words and moves by North Korea strike me as saber rattling for a purpose (or, more likely, purposes). One purpose, as Steve says, is to obtain new concessions from the U.S. Another purpose may well be to shore up the dictator’s standing with the military. It has been reported that Kim Jong Un has turned »